Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Media Relations Myths

After reading this article on PR Daily, I will never look at media relations the same way.  The author points out three major misconceptions that people have about pitching to the media:

1. It's all about who you know.
I've always been told that connections will make or break your career, especially in public relations.  The author of this article combats this theory by saying it is not, in fact, about who you know; it's about having a good story.  Maintaining a relationship with a reporter is always a good idea, but if your story isn't up to par, no relationship is going to help you.

2. Every pitch has to be perfect.
It has been drilled into our brains that we need to double and triple check our emails.  We are told that if there is one typo our credibility goes out the window and our pitches are disregarded.  This article disagrees, and I see the authors point.  Having internships in the professional world has shown me that there really are times where people forego grammar laws and just shoot out an email that gets their point across.  While it's always good to maintain a professional writing style, sometimes a spelling error really isn't going to ruin your pitch.

3. Print is king.
The article points out that clients generally like to see their names in hold-able, foldable print.  This is probably true because for some reason a tactile version of a story can seem more glorified than something you read off a computer screen.  This attitude is definitely changing, however, especially with the evolution of online media and the ability to have an online subscription to many newspapers.  I wouldn't say that press in a print newspaper is any more or less exciting than it is online.

Pitching has always been something that made me nervous, and I'm sure many of my peers will agree.  It's important to take seriously and be professional, but these myths are important to crack.  While I don't know if I will ever be able to send a pitch without triple-checking my grammar and spelling, it's nice to know that pitching isn't as pressure-packed as people make it out to be.

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